Was the Highland Park shooter at July 4 parade a sniper?

According to authorities, the shooting at Highland Park‘s Fourth of July Independence Day parade on Monday, which left six people dead and around two dozen “seriously injured,” looked to be “random” and carried out from a nearby rooftop.

Social media chatter immediately erupted of the shooter attacking from a ‘sniper position.’

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“Media reporting the gunman – a white teen or young man – had a rifle and was in a “sniper position” on a rooftop as he picked off people below at the Highland Park parade,” wrote Shannon Watts.

Another user took the opportunity to taunt the NRA, “The Highland Park shooter took a sniper position on a rooftop to kill people so how do we protect against that, NRA?”

Was the shooter a trained sniper? A sniper is described as a highly trained fighter who specialises in shooting targets from extremely great range with customised guns. They’re also notably skilled in stealth, camouflage, infiltration, and surveillance.

The police, however, refused to say anything definitive and termed it as anything but “random.”

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“Stay vigilant right now. This person has not been identified by all means at this point. This appears to be completely random,” said Lake County Sheriff Sgt. Christopher Covelli, commenting on the intention of the shooter.

“Very random, very intentional, very sad day,” he added.

Highland Park police had described the gunman as a Caucasian man between the ages of 18 and 20, with a slight physique and lengthy black hair. According to Highland Park Police Cmdr. Chris O’Neill, the suspect is wearing a white or blue T-shirt.

Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogmen says they have identified a person of interest in the mass shooting during this morning’s July 4th celebration. The 22 years old’s name is Robert E. Crimo III. He is assumed to be driving a 2010 silver Honda Fit with the Illinois licence plate DM80653. Several law enforcement agencies are collaborating to capture Crimo. According to authorities, Crumo is armed and dangerous.

Sniper shootouts in the USA however are not unheard of. Even outside the cinematic world of Jack Reacher, the country that faced its 308th mass shooting of the year on Monday has witnessed sniper attacks in reality.

The most talked-about one is the 2002 Beltway Sniper attacks. It was a shooting incident in the Washington DC area that killed 10 people and injured 3 more over the span of three weeks. The gunmen, John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, in this case too appeared to have picked targets at random.

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A bullet broke the window of a craft business in Aspen Hill, Maryland, on October 2, 2002, almost missing a cashier. A 55-year-old man was shot and died while strolling across a parking lot in Wheaton, Maryland, less than an hour later.

Although the shootings were not initially linked, law enforcement officials quickly concluded that those two acts of violence were only the first of more than a dozen interconnected shootings over the next 23 days.

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Covelli also stated that a “high-powered rifle” was used during the Highland Park parade shooting. Cmdr. Chris O’Neill said firearm evidence was located on a rooftop of “a nearby business that was secured.”

“It looks like access to the roof via a ladder in an alley was unsecure,” Covelli also added that the ladder was attached to the building.

“What I’ll say right now is, it was high-powered rifle. I can’t go into details just yet. We’ll release that information as soon as we can. We walk a fine line with any criminal investigation where we don’t want to provide too much external information that can negatively impact what our detectives doing,” Covelli stated during a press conference on Monday afternoon. The make of the rifle has not yet been confirmed.

“Investigators are very, very quickly working to try to identify who this person is, and try to figure out where he’s at,” Covelli had assured.